Department of English

MATC Portfolio

In addition to your coursework requirements, you will assemble a portfolio of your
work for the faculty to evaluate twice: in the semester after you complete 18 hours
and in your final semester. This page provides information and policies about this
process.

Portfolio Deadlines

Please have your portfolio complete and uploaded by the following dates:

Term

Mid-program portfolio

Final portfolio

Spring

March 21

March 21

Summer

June 21

June 21

Fall

October 21

October 21

For mid-program portfolios: You are required to submit a mid-program portfolio after
you have completed your 18th credit hour in the program. For example, if you complete
your 18th credit during the fall semester, your mid-program portfolio is due by the
spring semester deadline, etc.

For final portfolios: All final portfolios are due during the semester you intend
to graduate.

Portfolio Requirements & Instructions

Throughout your time in the MATC, you will develop a portfolio demonstrating what
you have learned in the program. You will present that portfolio to the TCR faculty
for evaluation two times: after you complete 18 hours in the program and in the final
semester of your coursework. You must pass the final portfolio evaluation to complete
the MATC.

The purposes of the portfolio are to convince the TCR faculty that you have fulfilled
the program outcomes and to reflect upon your professional growth in the program.
Specifically, the MATC portfolio should demonstrate that you have gained the skills
and perspective reflecting the following outcomes of the MATC program.

MATC Outcomes

Students will be able to analyze and respond appropriately to rhetorical situations
and key issues in the field, including the differing goals and agendas of audiences,
organizations, and societies.

Students will be able to use a variety of appropriate communication technologies and
media

Students will be able to create effective and user-centered technical documentation
justified with relevant theory.

Students will be able to demonstrate sensitivity to the ethical, professional, and
cultural issues that face technical communicators.

Students will be able to demonstrate the capacity to enter the workforce in technical
communication as advanced hires, OR to enter doctoral programs in rhetoric, technical communication, and related fields.

Students will be able to demonstrate a sense of professionalism and a commitment to
the profession.

Begin your portfolio in your first semester in the program. To encourage this early
portfolio development, the portfolio will be a regular component of ENGL 5371, Foundations
of Technical Communication, a course all MATC students are required to take early
in their coursework. The portfolio should grow along with you in the program, not
only as a repository of your work, but as an expression of what you have learned and
who you have become professionally. In addition, the DGS-TCR will also use your portfolio
to advise you in signing up for classes each semester.

The rhetorical situation of the MATC portfolio is different from that of a job search
portfolio. However, the MATC portfolio might contribute to or lead in to your development
of a job search portfolio (see Bridging to the Professional Portfolio).

Medium

The MATC portfolio and all artifacts it includes must be submitted electronically
to the Director of Graduate Studies. You may link to a website, or attach files to
the e-mail message. If you are sharing large files, you may also put the files in
a Dropbox folder and share them.

Portfolio contents

Your portfolio will include a reflective essay and learning artifacts.

Reflective essay

The centerpiece of the portfolio is a 2000- to 3000-word essay analyzing your development
in the MATC in terms of the program outcomes listed above. In this sense, the essay
is an argument. Your thesis is that you have fulfilled the outcomes: your evidence
is your learning artifacts, as well as your discussion of them. The reflective essay
is an important part of your portfolio; the faculty will give as much attention to
it as to the artifacts you choose to include.

The reflective essay should not be a class-by-class or semester-by-semester narrative
or memoir of your experience in the program. Instead, it should demonstrate to the TCR faculty how the artifacts you are presenting
in the portfolio show that you have fulfilled the program outcomes. Accordingly, successful
essays are typically structured not chronologically, but according to the list of
outcomes above.

Your primary goal in writing the reflective essay should be to show how your work
in the MATC program fulfills the standards expressed above. But in addition, the essay
should reflect on the ways your work enacts, complicates, or contributes to current
research and theory in the field, and thus it should be grounded in and refer to your readings of research and theory.

Learning artifacts

The portfolio must include three to six learning artifacts as evidence of the learning outcomes you have fulfilled in the
MATC. These learning artifacts should be projects or papers you completed in MATC
coursework.

At least one artifact must be an academic essay or research paper.

At least one artifact must be a practical technical communication project.

Choose the artifacts carefully; your choice is a reflection on what you have learned
in the program, and it's a way to show the assessment committee who you are and what
you can do as a technical communication professional. Use your best judgment to decide
how many artifacts to include. If you include large artifacts, you can include fewer
of them (i.e., 3 or 4); if you include small artifacts, you should include more (i.e.,
5 or 6). Choose the artifacts you need to prove that you have fulfilled the MATC program
outcomes.

Originality, revision, and independent work

Although the artifacts must be work you completed in MATC courses, you should revise the artifacts for presentation in the portfolio. The evaluators will be looking at the body of your work from the culmination of
your academic career; don't assume that an artifact that received a good grade in
a course will be assessed as highly in the portfolio. If you revised the project since
its initial submission for a course, describe your strategies for revision and the
changes you made in the reflective essay.

You may include collaborative projects, but choose projects to which you made a substantial
contribution and revise them individually. In your reflective essay, specify exactly
what your initial contribution was to each artifact and explain how you revised artifacts
individually for portfolio submission.

In revising your work, take advantage of any feedback you received from instructors
when the work was initially submitted in a class. You can also ask for additional
feedback from your faculty mentors on individual artifacts. But because the TCR faculty
wish to assess your ability to work independently as a technical communicator, they
will decline to offer feedback on drafts of the whole portfolio or on the reflective
essay.

Any references to or quotations from material by other authors should be documented
using an appropriate style, such as MLA or APA. Any copyrighted material included
must be appropriately acknowledged; if necessary, the portfolio should include permissions
for using such material.

Mid-program portfolio

Mid-program submission guidelines

Each MATC student must submit a mid-program portfolio for formative assessment after
he or she has completed 18 credit hours in the program. If you do not submit a mid-program
portfolio on schedule, you will not be allowed to register for classes in the following
term.

To submit your portfolio for mid-program assessment, take these steps:

Write a first version your reflective essay, if you have not already done so. In this
version, review your fulfillment of the program outcomes thus far and discuss what
you plan to do to fulfill the outcomes in the remainder of your time in the program.

Write an email to the Director of Graduate Studies indicating that you are ready for
your portfolio to be evaluated. Include your reflective essay and your 3-6 artifacts.

The DGS-TCR will notify the portfolio committee that your portfolio is available for
assessment.

Mid-program assessment procedures

The portfolio committee will review your portfolio to assess your general progress
toward the degree and forward comments and feedback to the DGS-TCR and to you.

Final portfolio

Final portfolio submission guidelines

The final portfolio will be due March 21 for May graduates, October 21 for December
graduates, and June 21 for August graduates. The deadlines are also listed above in
a table.

To submit your portfolio for final assessment, take these steps:

Write your final reflective essay, if you have not already done so.

Write an email to the Director of Graduate Studies indicating that you are ready for
your portfolio to be evaluated. Include your reflective essay and your 3-6 artifacts.

The DGS-TCR will convey the portfolio to the portfolio committee.

Final portfolio assessment procedures

The portfolio is designed to satisfy the university's requirement for a comprehensive
assessment of your work in the MATC. Accordingly, it will be evaluated by a committee
of TCR faculty members. These evaluations will be reviewed by the entire TCR faculty.

Each portfolio will be evaluated with one of the following scores:

High Pass: exceeds expectations

Pass: meets expectations

Fail: falls below expectations

The DGS-TCR will send out scores and evaluative comments shortly after the assessment
committee completes the evaluation. If a candidate receives a passing score, his or
her results will also be conveyed to the graduate school to acknowledge degree completion.
If a candidate receives a failing score, he or she will have one opportunity to revise
and resubmit the portfolio the next term. Upon a second failing score, the candidate
will be assessed as having failed to complete the requirements for the MATC degree.

The DGS-TCR will retain your portfolio on file, but after its initial evaluation it
will be used solely for MATC program assessment. If any researcher wishes to use your
portfolio as part of any research project, he or she will request your permission
first. If the program wishes to use your portfolio as an example for other students,
we will request your permission first.